Adult Learners' Forum for Aberdeenshire

ALFA members met on Wednesday 19th June at 7 pm for their regular monthly meeting. They discussed several items:

• Feedback to group from representatives at the National Adult Learning Awards Experience
• Feedback on facilitating the National Numeracy Day Big Natter About Numbers session
• The ALFA ‘Helping you to vote’ sessions
• Funding requirements
• Update on CLD developments:

• Referral form
• Review on Accreditation
• Structure Changes possibly impacting group

• Learner Voice Conversations and forum meetings around survey on Engage Aberdeenshire

Members agreed to have a meeting to review the area learner voice findings from each area in early July.

ALFA member Charlie McCorry said “It’s great to see the group working to promote learner voice and conversations throughout Aberdeenshire about Adult Learning. We’re building momentum and confidence as a group”.

ALFA members Natalie, Lee and Chaz who brought home a National Adult Learning Award to Aberdeenshire have presented it to their Adult Learning CLD worker Ed Garrett.

All three members are from the Huntly area and have benefited from Ed’s approach to supporting them on their learning journey.

Natalie Naylor stated “Adult educators and tutors are not recognised enough for what they do and the impact they make on our lives. We want Ed to house our award, a beautiful wood and slate clock, at the Linden Centre to highlight how much adult learning means to us and how much Adult Educators in Community Learning and Development do to help us improve our lives”.

Ed was very humbled by the experience and said “I am touched and moved to be given this beautiful, crafted clock to hang here at the Linden Centre. It is wonderful to work with you all and see how you have developed into a national award-winning group.”

One of the main aims of ALFA is to get adult learners talking about learning in communities. ALFA want to collate learners’ views from the six areas of Aberdeenshire. ALFA want to inform and influence learning provision in the area. To do that they will be creating area reports on your views as a former or current adult learner or someone who cares about adult learning.

They will create 6 reports which will be published here every three months. The reports will also be presented to the 6 Local Learning Partnerships and Aberdeenshire Learning Community Partnership.

Their first survey is now open for 3 weeks and asks you about what you think are the benefits, barriers, concerns and hopes for community-based adult learning in Aberdeenshire.

Please help ALFA represent you by completing this short survey. The survey closes on 30^th June and the reports will be made available on this site by 31^stJuly 2024. We thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey: Survey Link

Adult Learners from ALFA are celebrating the 40^th anniversary of Volunteers’ Week Scotland. ALFA members want to share their experiences to highlight the diverse volunteer community and opportunities available in Aberdeenshire.

As volunteer champions for adult learning and other groups, ALFA members fully recognise that volunteers play a vital role in every Aberdeenshire community, serving as the driving force behind so many activities and events.

Listen to Chaz share his experience of volunteering with ALFA, Books Abroad in Rhynie and the Brander Garden in Huntly and why he thinks volunteering has been helpful for him by selecting this link: Chaz's Story.

Chaz highlights how these experiences enable him to:

• Connect to the community
• Socialise more
• Improve physical health and
• Improve mental wellbeing

Next week is volunteers’ week in Scotland. The ALFA group will be joining thousands of other volunteers throughout the land to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of #VolunteersWeekScot from 3^rd to 9^th June 2024.

Throughout the week, members of ALFA will be sharing their stories of volunteering and why volunteering matters to them.

Please subscribe or register with our site and hear the value and benefits of volunteering in Aberdeenshire.

ALFA members were delighted to be nominated for a National Adult Learning Group Award by CLD staff. The group have since found out that they have been shortlisted by Scotland’s Learning Partnership and are looking forward to attending the ceremony in May which is being held during Adult Learners’ Week.

The group were nominated because of their work and passion for Learner Voice. In the nomination, CLD staff highlighted that ALFA, currently made up of seven adult learning champions, share their knowledge and experiences to promote adult learning and help break down barriers. Considering themselves as lifelong learners they promote community-based adult learning as a catalyst empowering people to make change in their lives.

They have refined their research skills, developed an understanding around consultation, presenting and speaking in public. As the Community Learning and Development Service expand the forums to cover six Council Ward areas across Aberdeenshire, the group are now looking at supporting this.

The nomination also highlighted the group’s work around consultation. Current adult learners in Aberdeenshire were consulted around three wishes or changes they would like to see happen in adult learning. At the event, held by the Scottish Government, the group submitted their wishes on a postcard in December 2023.

The nomination concluded that ALFA “have pushed themselves out with their comfort zones both individually and as a collective group. Forum members are hugely supportive of each other and are passionate about making a positive change and empowering others to make changes to their lives.”

Long standing ALFA member Charlie McCorry said that ‘This is a real achievement for the group. It shows that our voluntary commitment and work in promoting community-based adult learning is valued and recognised not just locally but nationally. We were so pleased to be nominated and now we are over the moon to be shortlisted. I hope we win it, so we can put adult learning in Aberdeenshire on the map!”

Members of ALFA came together in Huntly on Tuesday 7th May to take part in filmmaking for the National Adult Learning Awards hosted by Scotland’s Learning Partnership.

Three members of the group were able to meet face to face and other members of the group joined online to highlight how they normally meet online.

With professional Film maker Marcin from Station House Media Unit (shmu), from North East Scotland, at the forefront of community media development, he said ‘it was a privilege to hear the ALFA member’s stories, they showed energy and passion, despite feeling nervous in front the camera”

ALFA member Lee Gall stated “ I was so out of my comfort zone going in front of the camera, but I did it! And I feel a great sense of achievement and confidence now. I felt the fear and did it anyway.”